Discussion

OcellO develops and uses clinically relevant in vitro human tissue models for screening and profiling of small molecules and biologics. Tissues cultured in a natural 3D extracellular matrix environment show improved phenotype, function and gene expression profiles compared to 2D monolayer-cultures or spheroids grown in suspension and therefore represent better models for evaluating the effects of new drugs. The analysis of these tissue models, which use cell line, stem cell and patient-derived material, is enabled by OcellO’s unique 3D image and data analysis software, OminerTM. As well as providing more sensitive measurements of cell growth and viability compared to biochemical assays, phenotypic profiling allows the measurement of more complex biology that better correlates with clinical endpoints. Furthermore, compounds can be classified according to their effects on biology and the optimum therapeutic- or target-specific profile can be selected to enable a better ranking of compounds at an early stage in the drug discovery process.
This lecture will give an overview of OcellO’s screening methodology and its application to drug discovery for various cancers.